Sunday 26 May 2013

Sun-Tried-Day: Claire's Leather Look Polishes

Greetings All!

I read on a Facebook group I'm in that the polishes in Claire's are £1 each at the moment (normal price - £2.25 to £4!). I don't have a lot of experience with their polishes, but I have a few of their pretty glitters, so I leaped into action and headed down there! I can't resist a bargain.

They actually have a pretty decent range of polishes - lots of pretty pastel cremes, a decent selection of glitters, some speckled polishes (glitters in a coloured base) and some 'effects' polishes. I was fairly restrained, and only got 6 - 2 of the speckles (I can't resist glitter in a coloured base. I think because when I was young, you had to do the base and the glitter separately. Now it's all in one bottle!), a peacocky metallic that is some kind of multichrome, but weird, and three of their Leather Look polishes. I love my Nails Inc leather polishes, and the whole textured trend in general, so I was interested to see what the '£1 leather polish' would be like. They also had an interesting selection of colours, some of which I've not seen before!

So, let's start with the best one, shall we? Oh, they don't have names, btw. Apparently they do on the receipt, which of course I lost. So I'm making up names for them! This one is Burgundy Leather, which is the least textured/ most leathery of the three. This is 2 coats, although you could probably get away with one thick coat.









Yeah, so things get pretty picture heavy in this post! This one is seriously, seriously gorgeous. I'm not sure if it's a dupe for Nails Inc Shoreditch Lane (which has been hovering around the Most Wanted list for a few months), but if they aren't twins, they are definitely close cousins. The Crumpet has a pretty good post about Shoreditch Lane HERE. This is maybe a tad less matte, but it's also a tenth of the price (for just the polish. If you buy the set with the charms etc, then this is a twentieth of the price!!!). I won't be buying the Nails Inc one now - this is plenty close enough for me! Application and dry time were also pretty good - I haven't done a wear test, but I will be wearing this again (and again), so I'll let you know. I love how rich and dark it is - it's almost like a dried blood leather!

Next up is something I personally haven't seen before - a metallic leather polish. What? Yes! I'm calling this one Cherry Leather (sounds cuter than metallic red lol). Again, this is 2 coats.







Unfortunately the metallic-ness doesn't fully translate to the nail, with the texture. It still definitely had a glittery sheen to it though. This one is a lot more textured than Burgundy, more of a straight up textured polish than a leather look one, but I still like it quite a lot. What I didn't like was cleanup - it was really stainy, and really...floody? It flooded my cuticles with pink if I touched it with acetone. Removal took ages too. Next time I will polish super carefully, and double up on base coat! Apart from that, yummy! It almost reminds me of a cheery red patent leather, but it's just slightly too textured. I also experimented with a top coat.


Haha, it wouldn't be Asda matte topcoat without the obligatory white dot! It still looks and feels a bit textured, but I didn't really like the look very much - it's like orange peel! Ah well, we live and learn.

Lastly is the one I was most excited about, Nude Leather (nude leather?! *drools*). Unfortunately it's kind of the dud of the three! 2 coats.







OK so it's not really that bad. I like textured polishes, I like nude polishes, it just isn't really what I was expecting. This one is very textured, quite rough to the touch, not the smoother, matte leather I was hoping for : ( I'm sure it'll grow on me though (it kind of looks like it already is - eww!). Either way, it definitely doesn't look like leather.

So it seems most of these are just textured polishes (am I crazy, or is leather polish supposed to be slightly different to textured polish? Like, less textured, and matte? Because leather and texture aren't synonyms! If not, I apologise Claire's!), but for a brand I don't usually associate with nail polish, I'm pretty impressed (I know they do a lot of nail arty bits, but they're quite expensive, and I think they're only doing it because nail art is 'in' at the moment. It isn't somewhere I would usually go for polish or art supplies, put it that way). They're all rather nice, opaque polishes, they dried quickly, and applied easily. They're normally £4 for the effects polishes, which I don't think is too bad, but for £1? Insanely good value. Stop reading this,and run to Claire's. Do it now! OK not right now, it's 10pm on a Sunday, but asap! Apparently they are on offer 'while stocks last' but that won't be long!

I'll show you the Speckles next week - also seriously pretty, and unbelievable for £1!

20 comments:

  1. The burgundy is seriously gorgeous! I can't wait to try it, and I actually quite like the look of the nude too although if it is very textured I'd be tempted to try 1 coat over a normal nude to see if that smooths it out a bit. My pink speckle is still going strong today too, I'm seriously impressed for £1!

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    1. Ooh yes the pink speckle is so pretty! I can imagine that soon Claire's shelves will be totally empty lol.

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  2. I'm not keen on leather/texture but the burgundy and red actually look really nice on your nails! And suuuuch a bargain! X

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    1. Thank you!

      You're right, they are incredibly bargainous. I might have to go back next week!

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  3. I def expected something different from a "leather" effect, you are right- they look more textured than leathery I'm afraid. I think I like the nude one best :)

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    1. The nude one is very pretty, once I got over my disappointment I could appreciate it for what it is, a lovely textured nude polish!

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  4. I love both burgundy and nude and wish there was a Claire's near (although my bank manager is very grateful that there isn't). Nice swatches!:D

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    1. Aww, I thought they were everywhere lol. That's the problem with £1 polishes - you can sort of justify buying twenty!

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  5. Very pretty!! I want the burgandy and nude one.

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    1. Thank you! Lol I feel a bit bad for the unpopular red one.

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  6. These are so awesome...really want them all..:)

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    1. I@m pretty glad I got them - I debated it for a nanosecond, but they had to come home with me lol

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  7. Bargain, did the leather come in black?

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    1. Yes it does! But as I already have the Nails Inc one, and the Boots 17 textured one, I thought I could live without a third black textured polish lol! See I can be quite restrained haha.

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    2. Very! I have the Boots one, but not the Nails Inc from what I can tell the 17 one is more gritty than the Nails Inc one?

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    3. Yes the Boots one is quite a bit grittier, it's a decent enough black textured polish, but the Nails Inc one is just...*drool* and does actually look like leather.

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  8. Wow-bargains!! I don't know when I'll get chance to pop to Claire's :(

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    1. Apparently the offer has already ended! Which is...lame, to say the least!

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  9. They all look fab! Unfortunately the ones near me have POOR selections of polish :( might have to go on an eBay trawl!

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    1. Thank you!

      I must admit, I paid very little attention to their polishes before the sale! Just the odd glance!

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